While few New Jersey voters know much about him, former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, a
Republican challenger, leads Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine 44 - 38 percent in this year's
Governor's race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

This reverses a 42 - 36 percent Gov. Corzine lead in a November 19 poll by the independent
Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University.

"Republican Christopher Christie has broken out of the gate as a strong challenger to Gov. Jon
Corzine. In less than four months, he has come from trailing the Governor by six points to leading him
by six points - a 12-point shift," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University
Polling Institute.

"In that time, Corzine's approval rating has slipped only a couple of points, but Christie's
favorability ratings have jumped by nine points," Richards added.

"Corzine suddenly has become the underdog in this race and history will surely repeat itself in
New Jersey in 2009. The big question is whether Corzine will come back like Democratic Gov. Brendan
Byrne did in 1977 or go down to defeat like Jim Florio in 1993."

Corzine also gets a negative 49 - 41 percent favorability rating, with 7 percent who don't know
enough about him to form an opinion.

Christie gets a 31 - 7 percent favorability, but 61 percent of New Jersey voters don't know
enough about him to form an opinion, down from 70 percent in November. For Lonegan, 78 percent
don't know enough.

"Among independent New Jersey voters, Christie has gone from a narrow lead last November to
a 2-1 lead over Corzine in the new poll," Richards said.

Only 9 percent of New Jersey voters say things have gotten better in New Jersey since Corzine
became Governor, while 45 percent say they've gotten worse and 43 percent say they're the same,
almost identical to results from a November 19, 2008, Quinnipiac University poll.

Only 31 percent of New Jersey voters are "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with the
way things are going in the state, while 68 percent are "somewhat dissatisfied" or "very dissatisfied,"
also identical to November 19 results.

From January 29 - February 2, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,173 New Jersey registered
voters with a margin of error of +/- 2.9 percentage points. The survey includes 385 Republicans, with a
margin of error of +/- 5 percentage points.

The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public opinion
surveys in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio and nationally as a public
service and for research.
For more data or RSS feed: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/polling.xml, or call (203) 582-5201.

1. (If registered Republican) As you may know there will be an election for
Governor in New Jersey this year. Thinking about the Republican primary for
Governor, if the Republican primary were being held today, do you think you
would vote for Former prosecutor Christopher Christie or some other Republican?

Rep
Christie 40%
Other Republican 21
DK/NA 39

2. (If registered Republican)If the Republican primary were being held today,
and the candidates were Former prosecutor Christopher Christie, Former Bogota
Mayor Steve Lonegan, Assemblyman Rick Merkt or Franklin Township Mayor Brian
Levine, for whom would you vote?

Rep
Christie 44%
Lonegan 17
Merkt 2
Levine 5
DK/NA 32

3. If the election for Governor were being held today, and the candidates were
Jon Corzine the Democrat and Christopher Christie the Republican, for whom
would you vote?

TREND: In general, how satisfied are you with the way things are going in
New Jersey today? Are you very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, somewhat
dissatisfied, or very dissatisfied? (*also 71% on 02/12/1999)